Nothing beats a good royal wedding, especially when the weather is going to be nice too (which it does always seem to be for royal weddings) so that we can all celebrate outside with a glass of Pimms in one hand and cake in the other.In the UK, royal weddings (which sadly happen all too rarely for my liking) seem to instil a wonderful sense of camaraderie, friendliness and pride amongst us Brits; we have street parties, talk to strangers, make new friends and manage to shake off (albeit for one day only) the notorious stiff upper lip.

The impending royal wedding makes me want to add phrases like ‘jolly good’ and words like ‘splendid’ into my daily vocabulary too – so I’m just going to go with it. Another side effect royal wedding fever seems to be having on me is baking – I just can’t stop. I love the idea of US meets UK in a recipe and whilst there are so many options in that respect, nothing seems better than peanut butter (American through and through) meets British strawberries (the best in the world and officially in season). These cupcakes are the best of both – they’ve a delicious peanut butter sponge, a strawberry filling and a gooey peanut butter frosting on top.

You’ll want to marry these after you taste them, they’re such a perfect combination of flavours, some might say fit for a king!

Makes around 10 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1 cup brown rice milk
• 1/2 cup medjool dates
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• Pinch of Himalayan salt

For the filling

• 1/2 cup strawberries
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp coconut cream

For the frosting

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 cup medjool dates
• 1/3 cup coconut cream

Preheat your oven to 180C. To make the cupcakes, add the oats to a food processor and whizz for a minute until they form a flour, then add in the other ingredients and process for around 3 minutes. Spoon the mixture into cake cases and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until a fork inserted comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool.

To make the strawberry filling, add the ingredients to a food processor or high speed blender for 30 seconds or so until smooth, then using a sharp knife, cut a circular hole in the top of each of the cakes, place a spoonful of the filling in and pop the top back on.

For the frosting, again add the ingredients to a food processor or high speed blender and whizz for 1-2 minutes until a thick, smooth mixture forms. Spoon this into a piping back and pipe onto the cupcakes in a circular motion, starting at the outside and working inwards until you get to the centre. Alternatively if you don’t have a piping bag just spoon it on top!

Love, Mrs H xx